Mechanical piano-player



C. H. TAYLOR.

MECHANICAL PIANO PLAYER.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 23, 1916.

Patented June 15, 1920.

Mueiii Char/es A".

UNITED ,srMes .AY'PYATENT OFFICE. 5

CHARLES HAVELOCK TAYLOR, OF TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA. 5

' i M CHANICAL PIANO-PLAYER.

To all whom it may concern)- p Be it known that 1, CHARLES 'HAvnLooK TAYLOR, of the city of Toronto, in the Province of Ontario, Dominion of Canada, a subject of the King of Great Britain, have 'in-' vented certain new and useful Improve ments in Mechanical Piano-Players; and I. do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

My invention relates to tracking mechanism for perforated sheets of music rolls and the object of my invention is to reduce lateral .movement of the sheet to a mini mum when in operation and produce a mechanism which at times will have control of the sheet. Disturbances of the correct position of the traveling sheet is caused by tears or breaks in the edges of the sheet and fluctuations in the width thereof due to varying climatic conditions. The object of my invention is to obviate this defective adjustment and produce a tracking mechanism which will secure a correct tracking action as long as music can be produced from the sheet.

The tracker mechanism commonly used comprises a tracker-bar which contains the suction ports of the player, carrier and take-up rolls for the sheet and pneumatic mechanism for maintaining the sheet and tracker-barin correct relative positions.

My invention may be said briefly to consist of the specific construction and particular arrangement of the tracking bar and sheet to present governing means adapted to act upon'the longitudinal middle of'the sheet.

Generally speaking this mechanism in the main, more specifically stated, consists inv locating the tracker-ports of the tracker-bar and the tracker-perforations of the sheet at the middle of the tracker-bar and sheet, respectively.

For full comprehension, however, of my invention reference must be had. to the accompanying drawings forming a part i of this specification, in which similar reference characters indicate the same parts, and wherein:

Figure 1 is a front elevation of a portion of a piano having amechanical player containing my invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail fragmentary view of the sheet and tracker-bar illustrating the relative positions of the tracker-slots and perforations, 1

as desired.

Specification of Letters I'atent. Patented June 1:5, 1920 Application filed September 23, 1916. Serial 110 121387.

1 not necessary to describe more than is essential to the illustration of my invention. United States Patent No. 795,881 granted August 1, 1905, illustrates a tracker'mechanism of the type Iwould prefer to use in constructing a player piano provided with my invention. I have indicated in diagram the carrier-roll at b, the take-up roll at c, the perforated sheet of the music roll atd and the tracker-bar at e, and assume for the purpose of illustration that the tracker-bar is stationary and the rolls and sheet movable.

According to my invention the trackerbar has a pair of tracker-ports g at its middle these ports being preferably in the form of parallel oblong transverse slots of sufficient length to completely overlap two tracker perforations in the sheet; and the space between the slots being slightly less than the width of the perforations in a direction transversely to the sheet. tracker-perforations of the sheet are indicated at h, and arranged in a single longitudinal series located along the middle of the sheet; and they are preferably of circularfform, the diameter being such as just explained that their edges present slight openings to the tracker-slots g.

With this arrangement of tracker-ports and perforations the side edges of the sheet are not utilized as the tracker medium, and the music-note perforations indicated at 7: may be extended as near as desired to the side edges, the space being provided along the center of the sheet to accommodate the These with music note ports extending from the slots 9 to points as near to the end of the bar Operation.

1 forations h in position to have their centers register with a central point between the slots 9 it will have the effect of causing these perforations to travel with their side edges in open communication with the adja cent edges of the ports. /Vhen proper aline ment of the sheet is disturbed more air will. be admitted to one of the tracker ports than the other thus disturbing tl e equilibrium of the tracking device and causing the latter to correct the relative positions of the sheet and tracker-bar.

lVhat I claim is as follows:

In a player piano the combination with a music sheet having music note perforations therein and at its middle a iongitudinal se ries of uniformly spaced tracker perforations distinct from the music note perforations, of a tracker bar having a pair oi? slots at its middle extending transversely to the main length of the tracker bar the space between the slots being less than the width of each of the tracker perforations and the length of the slots being greater than each of the spaces between the tracker perforations for the purpose of effecting constant communication between the tracker slots and tracker perforations and thereby c0n stantly controlling travel of the music sheet. In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES HAVELOOK TAYLOR. lVitnesses H. M. CnnIs'rMAN, C. W. MARTIN. 

